People have rightfully not gotten over a man storming Kamala Harris's stage

We have to be better.
By Nicole Gallucci  on 
People have rightfully not gotten over a man storming Kamala Harris's stage
Kamala Harris speaks onstage at the MoveOn Big Ideas Forum. Credit: Kimberly White / Getty Images for MoveOn

We don't know who needs to hear this, but do not interrupt Kamala Harris while she is speaking.

When the 2020 presidential candidate spoke at MoveOn's Big Ideas Forum in San Fransisco on Saturday, a man and animal-rights protester by the name of Aidan Cook stormed the stage and snatched the mic from her while she was discussing the gender pay gap. Why? In attempt to turn people's attention to "a much bigger idea."

There are so many problems with that scenario, where do we even begin?

After Karine Jean-Pierre heroically intervened between Cook and Harris, and several people, including Harris's husband Douglas Emhoff, escorted him off stage, Harris reportedly returned to speak and told cheering audience members, "I'm good, I’m good... All good. No worries."

While Harris powered through the remainder of her discussion, videos of the incident began to circulate online, prompting fans and women across the country to offer support to the 2020 candidate and call out just how wrong the man's actions were.

It's appalling for anyone to storm a stage and make people feel that their safety is at risk, but for a man to interrupt a woman as she's speaking about gender equality — not to mention attempt to take away from a woman of color's time at the mic — is a whole other level of ridiculous.

The protester, Aidan Cook, is with the Direct Action Everywhere animal-rights group, and was reportedly attempting to ask Harris to "support ordinary citizens rescuing animals rather than the factory farms that abuse animals, sicken local populations and repress whistleblowing activity."

When The Guardian's Lois Beckett asked Cook if he had "considered the optics of literally taking the microphone away from women of color," he replied, "I did. I tried to show my profound respect for each of the people onstage."

The 24-year-old went on to explain to Beckett that he made an attempt to keep his hands up and apologize to Harris while taking the microphone from her hands, and the Direct Action Everywhere animals rights group claimed to have targeted Harris simply because she's California's senator.

Cook's attempt to justify his actions didn't change people's minds. Many still expressed disgust for his behavior and called for an increase in security around Harris to ensure a stunt like this is never pulled again.

The event undoubtedly shook people up, but on Saturday night Emhoff, Harris's husband, tweeted a photo thanking everyone for their concern.

Harris handled the incident calmly, displaying so much strength, but we have to work harder to ensure events like this do not continue to occur.

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Nicole Gallucci

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.


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